Things She Loves
by Andrea O'Down
Summary: Ash has never said "I love you" first, so why on earth did these words slip her mouth now?


_For the writing-prompts I'm doing on tumblr. An anon asked for "Alright, I love you." for AshXLance. :)_

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 **Things She Loves**

"I love you."

The moment the words have left her mouth Ash wishes nothing more than to clasp her hands over her mouth and stuff them back in.

If only she could.

But she can't.

The words are said, and nothing can undo that.

Perhaps Lance hasn't heard.

Which would be unusual - he's sitting right next to her -, but not impossible. Maybe she's lucky.

But Lance looks at her, his eyes wide, and all hopes that Lance might suffer from temporary deafness are gone.

Ash wants to slap herself. She isn't the kind of girl to say it first.

She hasn't when they first got together, and she had no intention of doing so after they got back together.

And now she's said it.

 _Stupid, Ash, stupid!_

"You love me?" Lance says, his eyes still wide, and Ash flinches.

She needs a way out of this. And fast.

"I mean I love a lot of things," she says, hoping that Lance at least misses the tremble in her voice, the ring of insecurity.

But today is not her lucky day, and so she doubts it.

"I-I love french fries, for example," she adds quickly. "And I love horror movies, you know, the gory ones. And I love to sleep in on the weekends. And music! I love music!"

She could add so many more things to that list, but something tells her that she could just as well stop now.

Lance isn't going to buy it anyway.

Unless she's lucky.

Which she has already found out she isn't today.

"You love me?" Lance says again, and she feels her throat tighten.

She shrugs. "As I said, I love a lot of things," she tries again. "Li-like french fries and music and horror movies and …"

Again, she breaks off.

This isn't going according to plan.

Not that she had a plan in the first place.

These words, they just slipped her mouth and now she can't take them back.

Why on earth did she _say_ them?

These three words, they're _huge!_ And she's never said them first before. _Never!_

So why is today different?

Okay, they've spent such a beautiful day together, and Lance was so courteous and nice, and still!

Why did she _say_ those words?

It's so unlike her!

"You love me?" Lance says once more, and now Ash thinks that maybe she should slap him instead. He seems frozen, stuck, somehow.

But then Lance goes on.

"You love me like french fries and horror movies and music?" he asks. "Or do you love me a little more than these things? Or a little less? I'm not sure I get it."

There's this small smirk quirking his mouth, and Ash gets the feeling he's enjoying this.

She just twists her mouth.

"Come on, Ash," Lance goes on. "You gotta help me here. Am I just one more item on your list? And if I am, do I range before music or after? I need to know. Because if we're doing lists, I should think of where to put you on mine."

Ash feels the anger rise in her chest.

It's one thing that she's been so stupid to say these three words first, but now having Lance making fun of it is a totally different thing.

And she likes neither.

"Alright, I love you!" she finally calls out.

If there's no way out of this for her, she can just as well say the truth.

"You happy now?" she asks, crossing her arms over her chest and twisting her mouth.

"Very," Lance replies. "Oh, and by the way, Ash…"

"Yes?" she asks, twisting her mouth a little more.

"I love you, too," Lance says, and his smirk turns into a warm smile.

His words, his smile, they make the tension melt away from Ash's body, but she makes sure not to let it show.

She keeps her arms crossed over her chest, even wraps them a little tighter around her.

She shrugs, doing her best to make it look like she doesn't care at all, although her heart is beating like crazy and her mouth is trying so hard to turn into a smile.

"Whatever," she says, and it's not just to finally make her mouth do something else than fighting her. Because she wants to keep its corners down, while her mouth seems to have decided that they have to be up in a big smile.

No, that's not going to happen.

She's given enough of her away already today.

Lance laughs a little.

"Come here, tough girl!" he says and pulls her into a kiss.

Ash is fine with kissing him. It means her mouth can't finally turn into a smile.

Besides, kissing Lance is fine.

It's one of the other things on her list of things she loves.


End file.
